West Virginia Executive Spring/Summer 2020 | Page 98

�������������
Jeff Barnes
President & CEO, Barnes Agency
MAGGIE HATFIELD
Photo by Josh Hanna.
JEFF BARNES, president and CEO of the Barnes Agency, credits
his career success to integrity, honesty and respect.
“I have tried to navigate my professional career by doing
the rights things for the right reasons even when nobody is
looking,” he says.
It was under his father’s guidance that Barnes was first led
down the health care career path. As a hospital financial services
executive, he thought his son would excel in health care administration.
Barnes began his professional career as an administrator
in training at a large nursing home, but he was drawn to the
world of advertising. He was able to blend his two passions
when, after years of research, he saw a need in the region for
an advertising agency that specialized in health care marketing
and public relations. In 2003, he founded the Barnes Agency.
However, he quickly found out that starting an advertising
agency was not an easy venture.
“In the early years, it was difficult to make a new agency
work,” he says. “We were in the shadows of much larger, more
96
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE